The Penokee Veneer Company Records consist of documentation on the Penokee Veneer Company and its subsidiary organizations. Materials from Penokee Veneer Company and Splicedwood Corporation predominate, and unless otherwise noted, are intermixed.
Company correspondence and printed material from business and political associations make up the bulk of the collection. Although the material covers the period from 1939 through 1966, most of it is from 1950 to 1963. The collection is strong on the selling and merchandising of veneer and plywood, the day to day operation of their manufacture, and the industry's attempts to affect national trade policy and limit the importation of foreign made plywood. The collection is organized into ten series: ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS, FINANCIAL RECORDS, PERSONNEL RECORDS, PRODUCTION RECORDS, ADVERTISING MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, MEMOS AND REPORTS, SUBSIDIARY COMPANY RECORDS, SPECIFICATIONS AND REPORTS, and ASSOCIATION RECORDS.
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS contain Penokee's articles of incorporation, minutes of the board of directors, mortgage contracts, and, for both Penokee and Splicedwood, annual reports for the State of Wisconsin and the U.S. Census Bureau. There is also material relative to the dissolution and sale of Penokee Veneer Company. The documentation dates from 1939 to 1968, although the coverage in each file is spotty and incomplete.
The FINANCIAL RECORDS for Penokee Veneer and Splicedwood are separate and are arranged alphabetically by record type. For each company, there are monthly reports (most from the 1950's) on accounts receivable, accounts payable, and sales. Annual accountant reports for both companies in 1963 and 1964 are also included as well as monthly and annual summaries. Finally, the series contains price and stock lists for both veneer and plywood from 1948 to 1963.
The PERSONNEL RECORDS consists mostly of weekly payroll records (1946 to 1963) for individual employees showing job classification, hours of work, wages received, and deductions. They are filed alphabetically and cover only workers at the Penokee mill. Summary data is also included. Labor files detail employee benefits, accidents, and the reasons why individual workers quit or were absent from work. Clippings, correspondence, and other material relative to unionization and a strike at Splicedwood in 1952 round out the series.
The PRODUCTION RECORDS are mostly from Penokee Veneer Co. and detail the daily output of veneer by each of the company's machines from 1951 to 1964. Daily plywood production records for Splicedwood are limited to the period 1957-1959. The series also includes bi weekly records of log deliveries by truck and by rail to the Penokee mill.
A small series of PUBLICITY includes correspondence, clippings, flyers, brochures, and photos from both Penokee Veneer and Splicedwood. Photographs of operations document each step in the veneer making process. The photographs are located in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Visual Material Archives; xerographic copies are with the other records in the collection. The material also includes copies of the company newsletter, Penwood Tales, published between 1951 and 1956.
CORRESPONDENCE is one of the major components of the collection. Included are General, Sales and Customer, and Legal Correspondence as well as files containing the correspondence of R. J. Prittie, a lawyer working for the firm, and personal letters of the McIver brothers. These categories are very loosely defined, however, and there is much overlap. A considerable amount of information relevant to the companies' sales, for example, is found in the general correspondence. With the exception of Prittie's correspondence, the files are arranged by year then subdivided alphabetically by correspondent.
The General Correspondence, 1947-1963, includes material from both Penokee and Splicedwood as well as occasional letters from the other subsidiaries. The letters cover a wide range of topics, but three subjects predominate: business matters, Republican Party politics, and national trade policy. The business correspondence includes salesman's reports, financial information, technical data on veneer, plywood, and industrial machinery, and discussions of inventory, supply, and shipping problems. The political correspondence refers to fund raising, elections, and trade. Correspondents include Joseph McCarthy, Alexander Wiley, Alvin O'Konski and other state and national political figures. The third area of emphasis focuses on tariff bills before Congress and the effects of imported Japanese plywood on the domestic industry. Of special note in this series is the correspondence with political and manufacturers associations which complements the documentation in the ASSOCIATION RECORDS.
The Sales and Customer Correspondence (the company used both terms) covers the years 1947-1963. Material from Penokee Veneer and Splicedwoood are filed separately although there is some inconsistency. Each company's correspondence is then arranged by year, then alphabetically thereunder. The files detail both companies' sales practices and contain queries and requests, price quotations, invoices, customer complaints, and sales reports.
The R.J. Prittie files contain legal correspondence for Penokee Veneer, Splicedwood, and to a lesser extent, the smaller subsidiaries, 1940-1963. There is much information on the companies' finances as well as details of lawsuits, timber procurement, and joint ventures with other businesses. Prittie kept his own files at his law office in Ashland. They are arranged alphabetically by subject; the papers within each file are chronological.
Following Prittie's papers are three files of Legal Correspondence, each covering the period 1950-1952, which were kept by McIver. Of special note are blueprints of the new mill McIver built in 1952.
The final part of this series is the personal correspondence of M.C. and John McIver, including letters from family members and guests visiting Mellen.
MEMOS AND REPORTS detail the day to day operation of both Penokee Veneer and Splicedwood, 1947-1964. The records of the two companies are filed together. The material is organized by year then alphabetically by the writer of the memo. Subjects covered include sales, maintenance, production, shipping and receiving, employee relations, and land and timber descriptions.
The SUBSIDIARY COMPANY RECORDS chiefly contain correspondence and reports from other McIver companies. The most complete are those of the Chequamegon Forest Products and F.A. MacDonald Co. which contain financial information, annual tax reports, and quarterly unemployment reports. Of note in the Chequamegon files is information on the development of Sand Island in the Apostle Islands. Material from Primax, Scott Taylor Co. and the Bobynn, a resort owned by McIver, is limited to intermittent correspondence and sales reports. From Almac Industries, a sales outlet in Los Angeles, there are financial reports for the period 1953-1956. Other materials from all these subsidiaries are scattered throughout the collection.
SPECIFICATIONS AND REPORTS contains technical data on plywood, including specifications for World War II bombers from the Hughes Aircraft Co., reports on the Wisconsin paper industry, the forest resources of Waushara County, and aspen timber in Colorado, and other information on land sales and tree planting. In addition, there is extensive material from the board of directors of Northland College including correspondence and financial statements. Documentation of the college's Freedom Leaders Councils in the early 1950's is also included.
The ASSOCIATION RECORDS series consists of newsletters, form letters, bulletins, minutes, reports, transcripts, and other printed material from conservative political organizations, manufacturers associations, forestry and conservation groups, and charities. Some files contain only a statement of philosophy and a plea for donations, while others contain much on a group's political and economic agenda. The emphasis is on anti Communism, anti unionization, and American trade policy during the 1950's and early 1960's. Groups best represented are the Hardwood Plywood Institute, National Lumber Manufacturers Association, National Association of Manufacturers, Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers Association, Veneer Association, and the Wisconsin Manufacturers Association. Besides documenting an organization's public activities, these files contain substantial information on internal affairs. This series is arranged in two ways. The major organizations are listed alphabetically and within each, the files are chronological. Minor groups are filed alphabetically under the heading miscellaneous associations. Documents concerning some of these organizations also are located in the General Correspondence series.
